By: Samir Al-Haidari

Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammad Baqir Al-Hakim, born in 1939, is the son of the late Grand Ayatollah Muhsin AI-Hakim (who was the spiritual leader for the Shia world in the period 1955-1970).

The Al-Hakim family is a well-known religious Iraqi family loved and respected by millions of Shia Muslims in Iraq and throughout the Muslim world. Sayyid Al-Hakim was born, brought up and studied religion in Najaf, Iraq (the holy city in the world). He was a distinguished scholar and the personal religious/political representative of the late Grand Ayatollah Muhsin AI-Hakim in Iraq.

Sayyid Al-Hakim was a co-founder of the Islamic political movement in Iraq established in the late fifties, along with the late distinguished leader Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammed Baqir Al-Sadr and other scholars. Sayyid Al-Hakim maintained a close association with Ayatollah Al-Sadr up to the martyrdom of Ayatollah Al-Sadr in 1980. In 1972 Sayyid Al-Hakim was arrested and tortured by the Bathist regime. He was released after a wide spread popular pressure on the regime. In 1977 he was re-arrested following the people's uprising in Feb 1977 in Najaf, and immediately sentenced to life imprisonment by special court without any trial. He was released in July 1979 following huge public pressure on the regime.

Sayyid Al-Hakim's association with Ayatollah Al-Sadr continued after his release in 1979 when Ayatollah Al-Sadr was put under house arrest. At this point Sayyid Al-Hakim assumed the responsibility of conducting clandestine contact with Ayatollah Al-Sadr until April 1980 when Ayatollah Al-Sadr was murdered by Saddam's regime. Sayyid Al- Hakim then decided to leave Iraq in 1980 shortly after the eruption of war between Iraq and Iran. He played a prominent role in the deliberations leading to the establishment of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (SCIRI) in November 1982.

Saddam's regime reacted violently to Sayyid Al-Hakim's prominent political activity of SCIRI and arrested 125 members of his family in 1983. Subsequently 18 members of his family were executed. Despite this ordeal and the assassination of his brother Sayyid Mahdi Al-Hakim in Sudan Jan 1988, Sayyid Al-Hakim continued his political activities against Saddam's regime. In addition to his political activities, Sayyid Al-Hakim is a leading member of several Islamic associations. He is also the author of many books on Islamic and political thoughts.